At Unique, we partner with talented management teams and business owners who share our passion for business and believe that together we can have a greater impact on the world.

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About Us

25-year track record of growing small businesses and maximizing returns on real property investments…

Formed in 1993, Unique Investment Corporation is an investment firm with a focus on private companies and income-producing real estate.

At Unique, we treat business as a scalable platform from which we can have a positive impact on our society. We believe a company’s culture determines the magnitude of the impact its people and products can have. At the core of our culture is the understanding that each of us is responsible for giving back to society, for having a positive impact on those around us. For over 25 years, exceptional financial returns have been a byproduct of this philosophy.
We have a proven track record of achieving returns above industry averages because we focus on the most important principle of all — IMPACT. Each of our investments adheres to a culture of positively impacting society. When we are successful in improving the lives of others, financial returns follow.

We operate as a family office on behalf of our investment partners, adding value in the investment process, overseeing the management of our investments via our proprietary management system and handling the administrative processes requisite with these activities.

We specialize in small to medium sized businesses and income producing real property in the western United States. We excel at growing and developing small businesses and maximizing returns on real property investments. The results are excellent returns for our select group of partners who include high net worth individuals and families.

Our Team

John G. Makoff

Managing Director

John was the founding force behind Unique Investment Corporation. As one of its Managing Directors, he has been responsible for equity funding, financings, acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures. He also has served many operational roles, including full profit and loss responsibility, chairmanships, and advisory board membership. John’s passion is the outdoors and he works hard to ensure he can spend part of each day either in the ocean or in the mountains. John developed the IMPACT culture at Unique and measures his success based on the number of lives he is able to positively impact.

Joseph G. Phillips

Managing Partner

Joe joined Unique in 1997 after working as a certified public accountant for several years. As one of its Managing Directors, Joe has been responsible for directing equity placements, third party financings, acquisitions, mergers and divestitures in both operating companies and real estate properties. Joe has held board level positions in several businesses and has been responsible for the day-to-day operations for multiple small and medium sized companies. Joe enjoys mentoring young adults and coaching youth sports where he feels his impact is immediate and meaningful.

Burke Plummer

Managing Director

Burke has been in the Unique family for almost 20 years as an operator and partner. For many years, Burke served as the Chief Executive Officer of Qqest Software Systems located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Burke has also successfully acquired and managed multiple transactions during his Unique tenure and currently holds several advisory board positions. Burke loves tennis and golf and his new grandson and uses his many strengths to positively impact youths through his church affiliation.

Justine Makoff

Director of Giving

Justine leads our community outreach efforts. She identifies opportunities for Unique to give back to our local community, and also serves as a liaison for each of our companies to pursue their philanthropic goals. Over the past 5 years, Justine has fostered connections between Unique and local charities focused on education, at-risk youth intervention, and environmental conservation. She serves as a board member for Sunburst Youth Academy, Free Rein Foundation, and PAAL of 77th precinct. Justine’s passion to positively impact her community and environment inspires and motivates Unique’s stakeholders to be active in their own communities.

Investment Approach

Unique Management System

Over our 25 year history, we have developed a proprietary management system that allows us to assist management teams in the development and implementation of their strategic plans. The results have been increased top lines, improved profitability and the creation of real value for our investors. Included in our system are periodic reporting processes that allow all stakeholders to communicate with accuracy and transparency. We assist management teams, we don’t direct them, and we believe our ability to work alongside and in partnership with strong and talented individuals is the primary reason for our long-term success.

At Unique, we often gather our entire family of leaders to discuss real-time issues and opportunities within the portfolio of companies which allows the leadership group to best leverage the collective knowledge and experience of their colleagues for the improvement of all.

Investment Criteria

We are opportunistic investors with broad interests and we focus on majority and control situations. Our most common operating company investments are in businesses with between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000 in annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). Unique is industry agnostic and will consider an investment in any industry if it fits within our cultural and return parameters. We prefer investments that have management in place, however, we are experienced in identifying and attracting talented managers to assist our partners in achieving their goals. Unique also invests in income producing real estate properties. Our target real estate valuation is between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000. For all investments, our geographic preference is the western United States.

Guiding Principles

Unique, and in turn each of its portfolio companies and all of our coworkers live by the following principles:

Integrity – To communicate and act with truth and sincerity.

Value Creation – To generate economic benefits by improving the lives of others.

Customer Dedication – To put the customer first in every action or decision.

Compliance – To completely adhere to the company’s business philosophy and personal conduct standards.

Accuracy – To understand, give, and receive information with clarity and precision.

Humility – To act without ego while working with others.

Courage – Having the strength to do what is right.

Curiosity – The desire to learn about and improve yourself, others, and your surroundings.

Portfolio

Case Studies

Click on the buttons below to learn more about some of Unique Investment Corporation’s recent business investments.

WireCash.com

WireCash is an impact-driven company focused on making a difference for immigrant populations that need it most. Each year U.S. residents send over $150 billion to family and friends abroad. More than 90% of this volume is sent offline from physical stores. WireCash helps transition both consumers and legacy money transfer companies online for the first time. WireCash technology will improve the lives of millions of people making their impact significant and measurable.

WireCash is the only online marketplace for international money transfers. WireCash offers the services of existing licensed money transmitters, enabling consumers to send money online to over 100 countries while comparing fees, exchange rates, and payout options. Through the marketplace, consumers for the first time have choice, freedom and options when sending money to family and friends in other countries.

Aggregating money transfer companies in one online location allows WireCash to provide the most convenient and cost effective solution for sending money home. WireCash’s customers are diverse and range from individuals who simultaneously work and go to school full time, religious leaders collecting funds for philanthropic endeavors, long-haul truck drivers paying family medical bills, and day laborers living in rural communities without access to physical money transfer stores.

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Gold Canyon

Gold Canyon provides families and communities life-changing products and opportunities for personal improvement. Gold Canyon will impact tens of millions of lives through its world class business opportunity and World’s Finest™ products. Gold Canyon distributes their products through a hybrid party-plan direct sales business model that provides an opportunity for individuals to work from home, on their own schedule and at their own pace. Executives join Gold Canyon so they can earn extra income, build their own business, create and nurture relationships and simply to work for themselves. Gold Canyon sets the Gold Standard for quality with their candles, scented products and home décor and in concert with their direct sales business model has already assisted millions of people in making their home and lives better.

The Gold Canyon business model includes a newly introduced E-Fundraising platform that expands on the company’s original platform to allow organizations the opportunity to raise money through sales of high quality scented products, in a cutting edge, digital forum. The company’s fundraising program has generated more than $30 million in the last several years for organizations to use for the benefit of their own communities across the country.

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Diamond Wireless

Diamond Wireless was an independent authorized agent of Verizon Wireless selling wireless telephones, telephone accessories and wireless service plans through a primarily mall-based retail model. Diamond set itself apart from its competition by its mall-based model and strong company culture, both of which were created by the company’s founder and CEO Troy Crosland. Troy and Unique were successful in growing Diamond more than threefold during our four year hold period by aggressively opening new stores and adhering to an employee-first mentality. Diamond’s strongest impact was had on its coworkers, who were groomed for success, personal and professional improvement and steady advancement within the company.

Diamond’s culture was cultivated over several years and produced a highly successful and happy sales organization of commissioned based coworkers. This model allowed Diamond coworkers to earn more money than if they were working for the competition, thus creating happy, long-term employees. Further, Diamond’s growth curve, coupled with management’s hiring philosophy, allow it’s coworkers to rise through the organization to ever-increasing levels of responsibility and compensation. Diamond had a tremendous impact on hundreds of direct coworkers and their families by providing excellent career opportunities all based upon the edict that each individual within the company controlled their own destiny.

Troy and his team, in partnership with Unique, were able to grow Diamond from 38 stores to 140 stores including two fold-in acquisitions along the way. During the four year period of this partnership, Diamond returned over 10X invested capital with more than a 70% internal rate of return. Unique and Troy point to the employee-first culture and impact driven nature of the management team as the primary reasons for this exceptional performance.

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Operating Businesses

Operating Business

The only online marketplace that allows customers to compare money transfer options based on brand, price, recipient payout option and other criteria.

Partner Feedback

Bernie Zimmer, Founder and Board Member, CHME, Inc.

I have developed lifelong friends and business partners through my relationship with Unique Investment Corporation. I sold my company to the Unique group with the intention of retiring within two years. After closing on our deal, we were doing such great things and growing the business together so not only did I decide to stay on, I decided to reinvest back into the company! With all the support that Unique was providing and the exciting company we were creating I ended up staying on as the CEO of our company for over 7 years! I am still on the Board of Directors of our company and I continue to learn and grow as a person and a professional through my interactions with the Unique family.

Troy Crosland, Founder and CEO, Diamond Wireless, LLC

The guys at Unique were awesome partners. They provided invaluable insight and feedback from a different perspective that challenged me and my team and benefited us tremendously in terms of our strategic thinking. My management team and I were able to apply our industry expertise in running the company each day knowing we had a great sounding board available to us. John and Joe were constantly pushing us to dream bigger and to push harder toward our goals. We were able to grow our business dramatically and provide opportunities for countless young people to join our family and build a career in the wireless industry.